CHAPTER XXV 



THE SPECKLED YEARLIN' 



APRIL and May rains, followed by good grow- 

 ing weather, had made everything beautiful In 

 the S. M. S. pastures. The turf of curly mesquite 

 grass was like a beautiful rug, painted here and there 

 with wild verbena, star daisies, white and yellow 

 primroses, and the myriad coloring of west Texas 

 flora. Branding time was on, and the S. M. S. Flat 

 Top Mountain outfit had gone into camp at Coon 

 Creek Tank, to begin work the next day. 



"Scandalous John," the foreman and wagon boss, 

 had been through the aggravating experience of 

 getting an outfit together. It had been no trouble to 

 find riders — cowboys who knew the game from start 

 to finish — but to secure a cook, a "boss wrangler" 

 and a hoodlum wagon driver was a problem. No one 

 wants to drive the hoodlum wagon, with the duties 

 of supplying wood and water for camp and branding, 

 helping the cook with his dishes or other odd jobs, 

 unprofessional, from a cowboy standpoint, except so 

 far as they lead to a "riding job," meaning regular 

 cowboy work. The "boss wrangler" was not hard 

 to find, but whoever takes the job aches all the time 

 to be promoted to a riding job, and is therefore dis- 



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